*sigh* How do I put this... Well, this "journaling" or "blogging" for every chapter of our chosen book is basically de-motivating me from even reading it. It's almost as if when I know I have to do something related to the book's content, it prevents me from concentrating on the story and plot, and takes all the entertainment value out of the story.
Now a response someone (*cough*Mr. Wilcox*cough*) might give would be "You reflected on the Truman Show just fine, how is this any different?" For one thing, that gave specific topics that we could concentrate on. In this, you need to FIND them. But it's that search that is interfering with the story reading process. Wasn't a main reason for this was to get us to read more? If not, then I must be thinking of something else...
Now it's very possible that I'm only having difficulty because of my issues with "reading between the lines." As far as I know, I was never good at reading between the lines, and even today I take things very literally. This could very well be hindering my ability to locate those so-called "bigger issues" that are possibly portrayed within the story.
Also I'm not one to leave notes or to "highlight" things in books. I'm not really sure why, but I just don't really like doing that. Maybe I'm too involved in the reading? Who knows.
So until I can figure out some way to read my book without the stress of blogging on it, I'm probably going to have to put that on hold. I WANT to read the book, but not like this, it completely ruins the experience. Though, I may just say "screw it" and just read the book without blogging on it anyway.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Prologue - First entry for TOK book (Halo: Ghosts of Onyx)
Holy crap. Wow. Umm... that was uber extreme.
The 2 main characters (Tom & Lucy) blew up a reactor that went off like a nuke and destroyed EVERYONE that was involved in that giant-enemy battle. (we're talking thousands)
And the two characters are freaking TWELVE YEARS OLD?! Makes me feel like chopped liver!
Other than that, some minor things I noticed was the use of calling them SPARTAN IIIs; I'm pretty sure the previous book had SPARTAN IIs.
And Tom & Lucy themselves. Who are they and what relevance do they have on the story? They weren't in any of the earlier novels...
Also the battle, what was that about? There was no relation with it to the previous book as well. (at least as far as I know or can remember)
Lucy went mute from shock or something after the battle. Is that even physically possible? Though, the book did mention that it's possible that she's just unwilling to speak instead of not being able to. It was dubbed "posttraumatic vocal disarticulation" in the book.
The 2 main characters (Tom & Lucy) blew up a reactor that went off like a nuke and destroyed EVERYONE that was involved in that giant-enemy battle. (we're talking thousands)
And the two characters are freaking TWELVE YEARS OLD?! Makes me feel like chopped liver!
Other than that, some minor things I noticed was the use of calling them SPARTAN IIIs; I'm pretty sure the previous book had SPARTAN IIs.
And Tom & Lucy themselves. Who are they and what relevance do they have on the story? They weren't in any of the earlier novels...
Also the battle, what was that about? There was no relation with it to the previous book as well. (at least as far as I know or can remember)
Lucy went mute from shock or something after the battle. Is that even physically possible? Though, the book did mention that it's possible that she's just unwilling to speak instead of not being able to. It was dubbed "posttraumatic vocal disarticulation" in the book.
Random Stuff (and a frustrating alarm)
Well, my biphasic sleep has run into a new issue, what to do if I wake up in the middle of a nap. I usually just extend my nap by about 30 minutes, but that introduces another problem. It makes me wake up later with my night nap, and usually late enough that I yet again can't justify getting up early and just sleep until I HAVE to get up. That's how the last few days have gone, with the exception of yesterday.
Yesterday night was a full luner eclipse, so I was all rallied up and didn't want to go to sleep 20 minutes later. Hopefully tonight I can get myself up in the morning.
A note about the eclipse, we could actually see the reddish tint very well at all due to how bright it was outside from things being all covered with snow (gotta love NE Ohio's lake effect snow :D) It also definitely wasn't city lights since we're pretty much in the boondocks. You could see individual shadows and tree branches for goodness sake, and it was 10:30pm! (note, it was brighter than a full-moon summer night) I'll see if I can get a picture tonight, though the snow is currently melting so I'll probably have to wait until it snows again (which, knowing NE Ohio, won't be long).
Oh! I forgot to mention in my last, there was thundersnow! It was at around 12:20am EST Feb. 10. And before the thunder, there was lightning! Now it only happened once, but oh man I wasn't gonna sleep well that night, completely threw me for a loop. The next day was practically a blizzard. XD (we even got school off that Monday due to -20ish degrees F wind chill)
My Colemak layout skills are coming along pretty well. I'm already up to 25wpm, but my accuracy still needs a decent amount of work.
And then there my alarm I use for biphasic sleep to wake me up... For the last several days I've either slept through it or my alarm isn't going off (which it says it did). Though, what's REALLY odd is for the last two days, I've woken up about 12 minutes after the alarm supposedly starts. (the alarm lasts for 15 minutes before turning itself off). So today I told my mom what time my alarm goes off at and to listen through my bedroom door if it is indeed going off and I'm just sleeping through it. But go figure, I end up waking to the alarm going off normally at the time I've set it at. What the crap. *sigh* I guess I'll just keep having my mom check if my alarm is going off, and if I keep waking up fine then I'll probably stop asking her to then. For safety though, I set a second alarm a minute after the normal one goes off, but at 1.5x the loudness.
...and my mom randomly decided that she was too hungry to wait until dad came home and made dinner now. So I need to end this post.
Yesterday night was a full luner eclipse, so I was all rallied up and didn't want to go to sleep 20 minutes later. Hopefully tonight I can get myself up in the morning.
A note about the eclipse, we could actually see the reddish tint very well at all due to how bright it was outside from things being all covered with snow (gotta love NE Ohio's lake effect snow :D) It also definitely wasn't city lights since we're pretty much in the boondocks. You could see individual shadows and tree branches for goodness sake, and it was 10:30pm! (note, it was brighter than a full-moon summer night) I'll see if I can get a picture tonight, though the snow is currently melting so I'll probably have to wait until it snows again (which, knowing NE Ohio, won't be long).
Oh! I forgot to mention in my last, there was thundersnow! It was at around 12:20am EST Feb. 10. And before the thunder, there was lightning! Now it only happened once, but oh man I wasn't gonna sleep well that night, completely threw me for a loop. The next day was practically a blizzard. XD (we even got school off that Monday due to -20ish degrees F wind chill)
My Colemak layout skills are coming along pretty well. I'm already up to 25wpm, but my accuracy still needs a decent amount of work.
And then there my alarm I use for biphasic sleep to wake me up... For the last several days I've either slept through it or my alarm isn't going off (which it says it did). Though, what's REALLY odd is for the last two days, I've woken up about 12 minutes after the alarm supposedly starts. (the alarm lasts for 15 minutes before turning itself off). So today I told my mom what time my alarm goes off at and to listen through my bedroom door if it is indeed going off and I'm just sleeping through it. But go figure, I end up waking to the alarm going off normally at the time I've set it at. What the crap. *sigh* I guess I'll just keep having my mom check if my alarm is going off, and if I keep waking up fine then I'll probably stop asking her to then. For safety though, I set a second alarm a minute after the normal one goes off, but at 1.5x the loudness.
...and my mom randomly decided that she was too hungry to wait until dad came home and made dinner now. So I need to end this post.
Friday, February 15, 2008
This will probably be short
First off, I've been delaying posting a new blog post because I'm currently trying to learn the Colemak keyboard layout. It's a more efficiant key layout than Dvorak (which was what I used to type the 1st blog post at around 70-80ish WPM (words per minute). But now I'm probably at 15 WPM with Colemak.
Now I originally started learning Dvorak around the beginning of 2006. Since then I became faster at it than even QWERTY. I don't know where I found out about Dvorak, but the QWERTY layout pisses me off. It was actually designed to slow the typer down by moving more common letters apart so that the typewriter hammers wouldn't get stuck together.
2 things I really like about Colemak over Dvorak:
Now a quick note on my biphasic sleep. I don't think I was STILL getting enough sleep at night, so my night nap is 4.5 hours from about 11:30pm/12am to 4am/4:30am. Today was actually only the 2nd day I was able to get up after my 4.5 hour nap. All the other days I went to bed too late which would leave me with only an hour before getting ready for school, which wasn't enough time for me to justify getting up. XD
Last note, I ended up installing Windows XP (Home Edition) on my PC 9 days ago. Before I was using Windows 2000 pro, and was VERY much for the idea of 2k>XP. Here's why I ended up switching: (quoted from an email I sent to my friend Bob)
That's all I'm going to go into now, because I'm still considerably inefficient with typing with Colemak (I try to use it whenever I can, I gotta practice somehow!)
Now I originally started learning Dvorak around the beginning of 2006. Since then I became faster at it than even QWERTY. I don't know where I found out about Dvorak, but the QWERTY layout pisses me off. It was actually designed to slow the typer down by moving more common letters apart so that the typewriter hammers wouldn't get stuck together.
2 things I really like about Colemak over Dvorak:
- Turns the near-useless CAPS LOCK key into a 2nd backspace key (which is much easier to reach as well)
- Keeps Z, X, C, and V in the same place as QWERTY for easier keyboard shortcuts
Now a quick note on my biphasic sleep. I don't think I was STILL getting enough sleep at night, so my night nap is 4.5 hours from about 11:30pm/12am to 4am/4:30am. Today was actually only the 2nd day I was able to get up after my 4.5 hour nap. All the other days I went to bed too late which would leave me with only an hour before getting ready for school, which wasn't enough time for me to justify getting up. XD
Last note, I ended up installing Windows XP (Home Edition) on my PC 9 days ago. Before I was using Windows 2000 pro, and was VERY much for the idea of 2k>XP. Here's why I ended up switching: (quoted from an email I sent to my friend Bob)
well, for one, I screwed up the way Win2k booted which resulted in it not recognizing my password.And one thing I didn't say in my email: fear of programs and apps deciding to no longer support running on 2k.
2) I couldn't use the newest graphic card drivers
3) I discovered what services I can disable to make XP not a RAM hog
4) Sean gave me an XP Home CD that he used when I got this PC off of him (but I was still stickin with 2k :P)
5) I've used 2k long enough and know a lot about it. At the time I got this PC I really didn't know THAT much about XP, but after helping my sister with her XP laptop so much, I learned much more.
That's all I'm going to go into now, because I'm still considerably inefficient with typing with Colemak (I try to use it whenever I can, I gotta practice somehow!)
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Getting started for TOK
EDIT: Holy crap that was a long post O_o
Alright, I just created this for a school class of mine called "Theory of Knowledge." I'll probably post links to this on ZFGC and Orange Lounge Radio in the very near future, so Mr. Wilcox -- don't be surprised if there happens to actually be comments on here :O
Anyway, several years ago, I was really reluctant to starting a blog because at the time it was almost the "in" or "cool" thing to do. Being a geek and not within the mainstream, signing up for things just because so many other people are doing it is just stupid. At the same time, even if I was only just doing it for me own reasons, other people could easily think that I, too, am "being a part of the crowd" which I really don't like to be in.
So in case you haven't noticed already, I'm typing this at around 5:30AM. The reason for this is because I'm currently attemping a custom type of what's called "polyphasic sleep." (You can find some general info on Wikipedia if you want) Since polyphasic is a general term for sleeping across multiple periods, I'm going to elaborate a bit what my specific sleeping schedule is (or attempt at it).
I sleep for only 2 periods a day, AKA "biphasic sleep." I currently sleep from 1AM to 4AM and from 3PM to 4:30PM. The reason for these lengths is because human sleep cycles are generally 90 minutes. Waking up in the middle of one of these cycles is what can cause massive grogginess (for massive damage maybe? -- Sony E3 2006 joke) I originally was trying a triphasic schedule, or 3 naps a day. The difference was I had a 1 hour nap from 12:30AM to 1:30AM and an hour and a half from 5AM to 6:30AM (the 3PM to 4:30PM stayed the same). But I was getting owned by grogginess from the 1 hour nap, so I did a bit more internet research and discovered the sleep cycles. For more extended naps (not the lighter 20-30 minute naps used in schedules that use 4-6 naps) sleep cycles are very important since you can take advantage of the arleady present sleep cycle, preventing you from having to struggle majorly for about a week as your body adjusts to the shorting sleep-length so that it can actually get some deeper, REM sleep. [woops, minor tangent] Because of the grogginess, I changed the 1 hour nap to a 30 minute nap to hold me over until my 90 minute nap at 5AM. That made me too tired from not enough sleep, so then I combined the 2 night naps into 1 longer one.
So far I seem to be doing very well. Though, I have overslept a bit by falling back to sleep after turning off my alarm, but then I moved it accross the room. Now laying in bed listening to the alarm for around 5 minutes helps. My alarm is actually my Nintendo DS (phat version, AKA the original non-Lite). I have it running a program called "Morning Timer" which is what's called a "homebrew" application -- unofficial software that required some "homebrew-loading device" to get it to run (an M3 Perfect Lite in my case). I have my DS play a random audio file (formatted to OGG vorbis and MP3, FLAC is too big -- they stay on my PC's HDD) stored on a microSD card that my homebrew divice reads. I then have my DS hooked up to a battery charger so it doesn't die in the middle of the night. Lastly, I have PC speakers with an amplifier plugged into it, with one speaker right inbetween the wall and my bed situated on top of a wooden beam surrounding the base of the mattress.
Though, since my mom sleeps in the room right next to mine, I had to place the speakers as to amplify for me and be quieter for anyone outside of my room. It's been working so far, though she did wake up once, but turning the volume down seems to have fixed that.
The reason I'm doing polyphasic sleep is because I really want more time in my day. It's not that I'm busy, but I utterly hate the fact that school takes up about 8-9 hours. Also, I have issues going to bed at night because I know I'll have to wake up and go te school in the morning. This sleep schedule allows me to stay up later and gives me 2 hours and 30 minutes before school.
I think that's all the details I'll go int ofor this intro post. I'll probably talk about my PC setup and about the disorder I've been diagnosed with called aspergers.
NOTE: If there are any spelling mistakes, it's because I have my PC's screen brightness all the way down and the contrast at 40% giving me a dark enough picture that you can't see the glow of light from outside my bedroom door (since my parents don't know about my biphasic sleep schedule yet; I need to make sure it's worknig fine before I tell them) Having the screen that dark makes the "misspelled-word underline" in Firefox nearly impossible to see.
Alright, I just created this for a school class of mine called "Theory of Knowledge." I'll probably post links to this on ZFGC and Orange Lounge Radio in the very near future, so Mr. Wilcox -- don't be surprised if there happens to actually be comments on here :O
Anyway, several years ago, I was really reluctant to starting a blog because at the time it was almost the "in" or "cool" thing to do. Being a geek and not within the mainstream, signing up for things just because so many other people are doing it is just stupid. At the same time, even if I was only just doing it for me own reasons, other people could easily think that I, too, am "being a part of the crowd" which I really don't like to be in.
So in case you haven't noticed already, I'm typing this at around 5:30AM. The reason for this is because I'm currently attemping a custom type of what's called "polyphasic sleep." (You can find some general info on Wikipedia if you want) Since polyphasic is a general term for sleeping across multiple periods, I'm going to elaborate a bit what my specific sleeping schedule is (or attempt at it).
I sleep for only 2 periods a day, AKA "biphasic sleep." I currently sleep from 1AM to 4AM and from 3PM to 4:30PM. The reason for these lengths is because human sleep cycles are generally 90 minutes. Waking up in the middle of one of these cycles is what can cause massive grogginess (for massive damage maybe? -- Sony E3 2006 joke) I originally was trying a triphasic schedule, or 3 naps a day. The difference was I had a 1 hour nap from 12:30AM to 1:30AM and an hour and a half from 5AM to 6:30AM (the 3PM to 4:30PM stayed the same). But I was getting owned by grogginess from the 1 hour nap, so I did a bit more internet research and discovered the sleep cycles. For more extended naps (not the lighter 20-30 minute naps used in schedules that use 4-6 naps) sleep cycles are very important since you can take advantage of the arleady present sleep cycle, preventing you from having to struggle majorly for about a week as your body adjusts to the shorting sleep-length so that it can actually get some deeper, REM sleep. [woops, minor tangent] Because of the grogginess, I changed the 1 hour nap to a 30 minute nap to hold me over until my 90 minute nap at 5AM. That made me too tired from not enough sleep, so then I combined the 2 night naps into 1 longer one.
So far I seem to be doing very well. Though, I have overslept a bit by falling back to sleep after turning off my alarm, but then I moved it accross the room. Now laying in bed listening to the alarm for around 5 minutes helps. My alarm is actually my Nintendo DS (phat version, AKA the original non-Lite). I have it running a program called "Morning Timer" which is what's called a "homebrew" application -- unofficial software that required some "homebrew-loading device" to get it to run (an M3 Perfect Lite in my case). I have my DS play a random audio file (formatted to OGG vorbis and MP3, FLAC is too big -- they stay on my PC's HDD) stored on a microSD card that my homebrew divice reads. I then have my DS hooked up to a battery charger so it doesn't die in the middle of the night. Lastly, I have PC speakers with an amplifier plugged into it, with one speaker right inbetween the wall and my bed situated on top of a wooden beam surrounding the base of the mattress.
Though, since my mom sleeps in the room right next to mine, I had to place the speakers as to amplify for me and be quieter for anyone outside of my room. It's been working so far, though she did wake up once, but turning the volume down seems to have fixed that.
The reason I'm doing polyphasic sleep is because I really want more time in my day. It's not that I'm busy, but I utterly hate the fact that school takes up about 8-9 hours. Also, I have issues going to bed at night because I know I'll have to wake up and go te school in the morning. This sleep schedule allows me to stay up later and gives me 2 hours and 30 minutes before school.
I think that's all the details I'll go int ofor this intro post. I'll probably talk about my PC setup and about the disorder I've been diagnosed with called aspergers.
NOTE: If there are any spelling mistakes, it's because I have my PC's screen brightness all the way down and the contrast at 40% giving me a dark enough picture that you can't see the glow of light from outside my bedroom door (since my parents don't know about my biphasic sleep schedule yet; I need to make sure it's worknig fine before I tell them) Having the screen that dark makes the "misspelled-word underline" in Firefox nearly impossible to see.
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